LETTER OF THE MONTH
SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY92 CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2019 CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2019 93CRAFTSMANSHIP
Boatbuilder’s NotesPRACTICAL ADVICEFully adjustable chisel plane SPOFFORD BRACE
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS ROBIN GATES
A journeyman shipwright seeking work in the late 19th century, and preparing to meet the hairy eyeball
of a nit-picking yard foreman, would be at pains to present their tools in the finest of fettle. On such an
occasion, the glimmering frame of a Spofford brace nestling among the planes and chisels would be as good
a recommendation as a letter of introduction from William Fife III. Nelson Spofford of Haverhill,
Massachusetts was granted US Patent 25984 for his "new and improved mode of fastening bits in braces" in
1859, and some hand-tool craftsmen hold that nothing better’s come along in the last 160 years. At a time when
the square shanks of bits differed widely in size and taper, fitting only their respective purpose-designed
braces, Spofford’s adaptable and rugged "clamshell" socket, formed by splitting the lower arm of the brace,
solved that problem in one fell swoop.chuck, with threaded collar closing on The more familiar Barber-type
spring-mounted jaws, would achieve the same end but with what seems like unnecessary complexity. Slide thebit into a Spofford brace, tighten the oversize thumb screw and you’re ready to bore holes for belaying pins,
treenails, pegged joints – the works. John S Fray & Co in Bridgeport, The Spofford brace was made by
Connecticut. Fray was a migrant Cornishman who’d begun his working life at the Bickford Fuse Works in
Camborne, making jute-bound waterproof fuses which William Bickford had invented to save miners’
lives in the perilous work of blasting below ground. The explosive charges were inserted in the rock using hand
drills, something from Fray’s past which perhaps drew him to Spofford’s invention. In any case, Fray lavished
attention on the new brace, adding nickel plating, cocobolo pad andsweep handle to the original specification, and a rare detail in tool making – inlaid pewter bands
securing the two halves of the handle around the frame. Spofford braces ranged up to
17 inches sweep (diameter of turning circle), developing sufficient torque to bore the toughest shipbuilding
timbers. This example fitted with a snail-pattern countersink is an 8in brace, suited to the lighter tasks of
yacht joinery. now considerable tool-making After John Fray died in 1916 the
business was sold to the Stanley Rule and Level Company who continued making the Spofford brace until WW2.(^) NEXT MONTH: Black Prince saws
Clockwise from above:Countersinking
with the Spofford brace; Secure fitting for square
shanks of all sizes; John S Fray was born in
Cornwall in 1833
Traditional Tool
ROBIN^ GAT
ES
(^1) depth and lateral blade adjustment Custom chisel plane with 2 Breakage at a
weld in the shoe adjustment screw perpendicular to the rear edge 3 Scribe the sides
of the mouth front end using a junior hacksaw guided by a wooden block 4 Cut away the
(^56) then use a card template of it Ready for reshaping the sides File one side to a fair curve,
to mark side two the line and smooth further with abrasive paper 8 Chisel-planing 7 File down to
glue lines without damaging the wood’s surface
BY ROBIN GATESA chisel plane, with its fully-exposed cutting edge, trims into corners and stopped rebates where the fixed
toe of other planes denies access, and where there’s insufficient elbow room even to use a scraping chisel. Unusually, a chisel plane’s cutting edge is set level with the sole, smoothing away only what stands proud of a surface, so setting up is critical. Set too high it won’t cut, while set too low it’ll dig in.
priced around £139, but you can make a more fully featured tool with lateral blade adjustment from an old – or in my case broken – block plane. The best small chisel plane on the market is probably the Lie-Nielsen 97½ with depth adjustment,
fettling, it performed well, so my heart sank when the shoe adjustment screw sheared off and rendered the tool scrap. Viewed positively, however, here was the starting point for a chisel plane that’s not only This Mexican-made Stanley 9½ block plane was of indifferent quality when new but after extensive
fully adjustable but also shorter – and handier – than commercial alternatives.
(^14)
5 6 7 8
2 3
Marking from the rule on edge
ROBIN GATES
Use the rule on edgeBY ROBIN GATES
It was a boatbuilder’s little joke when I asked him for a progress update that he’d reach for the four-fold boxwood rule and "consult the yardstick" – the joke being that this long-established
talisman for the trade’s precision is only two feet long. using the rule with face flat to the work, read it from directly Now here’s a little tip he passed on that isn’t a joke: when
above, or the parallax error introduced by reading from the side will make a nonsense of its 1/16th inch graduations. Reading from 45 degrees will throw the measurement out by the thickness
of the rule itself – 1/8 inch. But you can avoid this error by using the rule on edge, with its graduations touching the work, and its thickness eliminated from the measurement.
UNDER^ £^100 ,^00
The^ brave^ Corribee FOU
GreNeDk^ NI sESpSEoXnge^ boat
8 METER IF
48ft 10in (14.8m)LOA
LW L
30ft 6in (9.3m)BEAM
8ft 5in (2.6m)
6ft 6in (2m)DRAUGHT
DISPLACEMENT
8.4 tonnes (8,400kg) SAIL AREA
830sq ft (77m^2 )
CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019 57
Letters
I do not own a boat, nor do I know how to sail. However I have had a
subscription to Classic Boat for years and absolutely love it. One can always
dream. However, I am a cabinet and furniture maker and boatbuilding is
something I am very interested in. Your Boatbuilder’s Notes and Traditional
Tool sections are of particular interest to me and I’m sure others. I wondered
whether you have ever considered publishing this section as a book – a bit
like Adrian Morgan has done with his “The trouble with old boats”.
Jim Bennett, by emailWe’ve always thought so too! - Ed
Once a sailor...
Despite my ill health having kept me from the water for
the past decade and more, I still eagerly await the thud
on the doormat every month that tells me Classic Boat
has arrived. I was brought up sailing around Chichester
Harbour after the war; my family lived in London but as
a child, I would spend long weekends there. The family
boat in the 1940s and 1950s was a 25ft converted lifeboat
named Mimosa, a popular way of getting afl oat in those
days, which was kept on a swinging mooring. We went
very “upmarket” in the 1960s, when my father bought one
of the early Nicholson 32s, and by then, my two brothers
and I were old enough to take her away on our own, on
some very memorable, haphazard Channel cruising – less
said the better! Despite the fact I no longer get out on
the water, I read the magazine with great pleasure when it
arrives each month, and still consider myself to be a sailor.
Dr Norman Pentridge, London
Traditional Tool
More on the 8-M If
In his piece in the August edition of
Classic Boat, Jack Giff ord skips lightly
over If’s career on the Clyde in the 1960s
and 1970s. For those interested in the
“Straight Eight” revival during these
years, Gordon Findlay’s entertaining
autobiography from 2006, My Hand on
the Tiller, captures the spirit. Gordon
brought Wye, a 1935 Nicholson over from
Cork to join the embryo classic fl eet in
- If, a Bjarne Aas boat from 1930, and
Severn II, a 1934 Mylne, also found their
way across the Irish Sea in the 1960s. The
Cork trio joined Peter Fairley’s Christina
of Cascais (1936 Tore Holm), Silja (1930
Anker), Turid II (1939 Bjarne Aas), June II
(1929 Anker) and Carron II (1934 Fife).
This gave a fl eet of eight, all of similar
potential performance, if not resources.
The other Clyde 8-Ms Margaret (1922
Anker), Vagrant II (1927 Fife), Sirus
(1925 Morgan Giles) and The Truant
(1910 Fife) did not race in class.
Euan Ross, by email
Where’s my
grandfather’s
ECOD?
I note that you currently have for
sale an East Coast One Design
(ECOD) class yacht. My interest
is a similar yacht Joyce, No 9.
This used to belong to my
grandfather Rawsthorne Procter
DSC and I am trying to track
it down. If you or your readers
have any information on its
whereabouts, state of repair or
ownership, it will be appreciated.
John Procter, by email